Going beyond border, growing our footprint
DECADES of experience in developing and running airports has enabled Airports Company South Africa to generate revenue from an entirely new source in the form of offering Technical Services and solutions.
Before the idea of a Technical Services and Solutions offering had even begun to germinate, the company was making a name for itself in the way it managed the large volume of technical work required to keep an airport operating smoothly.
Perhaps the most significant achievement was the construction of an entirely new airport to serve the Durban region. What is now King Shaka International Airport was completed in time to facilitate tens of thousands of fans attending the FIFA 2010 World Cup.
The company soon appreciated that it had gained tremendous expertise and experience that could be packaged as a service and consulting offering to other airports in addition to the services it provides to the company’s nine airports in South Africa. And so Technical Services and Solutions Division was born.
Headed by Girish Gopal, Airports Company South Africa is structured into four functional areas:
Technical Research and Development keeps the company abreast of global technical advances and trends through its information management centre.
Advisory Services provides technical advice to internal and external clients.
Project and Portfolio Management ensures delivery of efficient and cost-effective infrastructure developments through strategic portfolio management and access to subject matter experts.
Enterprise Project Management Office ensures the alignment of all project functions within Airports Company South Africa to best practice standards and ensures that the business has constant and relevant management visibility of the projects.
Among the notable engagements for Airports Company South AfricaProject and Portfolio Management includes significant work undertaken in Brazil. In 2012, Airports Company South Africa signed a 20-year concession agreement to manage São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport in Brazil, a strategic alliance between the two countries ahead of that country hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2016.
Guarulhos International Airport received 40 million passengers per year but was designed for only 20 million. As a result, Airports Company South Africa was challenged to solve and mitigate problems such as broken escalators, and baggage counters and carousels that were not working. Furthermore, Airports Company South Africa managed the development of the new airport facility within a 24-month timeframe.
In Africa, Airports Company South Africa completed one of its most significant projects when the new Terminal 3 was opened at Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport in December 2018. Technical Services and Solutions provided technical advisory and operational readiness and transfer services for Terminal 3. It undertook stakeholder management, service level agreements, retail optimisation, baggage and aerobridge design and commissioning, as well as IT and project management.
Elsewhere in Africa, Airports Company South Africa has been engaged for projects in Liberia, Rwanda and Zambia. Over the next several years the Project and Portfolio Management function will manage more than R20-billion in infrastructure development for Airports Company South Africa’s airports.
Airports Company South Africa has thus completed its transformation from being internally focused providing services to one company into a respected externally focused service provider that can bid for projects in the open market. THERE is a lot to learn from nature. Anyone watching the autumn sky has seen how migrating birds fly in a V-formation. Studies say these birds carefully position their wingtips and synchronise their flapping, presumably to catch the preceding bird’s updraft and save energy during flight.
The business development team at Airports Company South Africa deploys a similar approach to growth and expansion. The skills and expertise developed over 25 years created an entirely fresh set of opportunities, enabling the company to fly into new areas in its own V formation.
A central function of Airports Company South Africa’s business development team is to position the company as a partner of choice in delivering sustainable airport management solutions. The team supports non-core revenue generation through consultancy and technical advisory services, airport management services, training and investment in strategic international airport concessions.
On the wider African continent, the business has been at the forefront of significant developments. In Ghana, the company managed the construction of the New Terminal Building III in Kotoka International Airport and implemented operational readiness and airport transfer (ORAT) after construction.
Additional ORAT contracts have been secured with Zambia Airports Corporation Limited and Liberia Airport Authority.
The company also entered significant areas of endeavour in India and Brazil. In 2006, the company was part of a consortium, Mumbai International Airport Private Limited (MIAL), that was awarded a 30-year concession, renewable for another 30 years, to operate, manage and develop Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
The company is also designated as an airport operator in the concession agreement and has entered into an airport operator agreement with MIAL.
In Brazil, the company has a 20% interest in a special purpose vehicle, GRUPAR (Aeroporto De Guarulhos Participações), that owns 51% interest in a 20-year concession of Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo.